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Coronavirus advice for customers

The coronavirus pandemic is creating exceptional operational and financial challenges for UK travel agents and tour operators, and we fully appreciate the concern this may be causing customers, particularly those who are waiting to find out about future or cancelled bookings.

ABTA Members are doing their best to manage arrangements for customers whose holiday bookings have been affected.

If your trip is not imminent your travel company may not be in touch with you right away. Travel companies will be managing bookings on a rolling basis by departure date, so please do be patient. They may not contact you until a few weeks before the planned departure date. Please visit the individual websites of our Members to see how they will be communicating with their customers during this crisis.

We recognise that travellers will have many questions at this time so we have set out a series of Frequently Asked Questions and answers on the current situation within the below sections, which are:

1. Cancellations and refunds

2. Current restrictions and future travel

3. Advice to customers who are abroad

These answer the most common questions so please do read through these as they should help you to understand how your booking might be affected.

Our Customer Support team is experiencing an extremely high volume of calls during this crisis so unfortunately wait times are considerably longer than usual. We would strongly recommend reading the online FAQs and only contacting us by phone if absolutely necessary.

Airlines are not Members of ABTA. If you booked your flight directly with an airline, you will need to contact the airline if you are having any issues with receiving a refund.

Not all travel agents and tour operators are Members of ABTA. You can find out if your tour operator or travel company is an ABTA Member using our search tool here.

If you have an enquiry about a company that is not a member of ABTA please contact Citizens Advice.

1. Cancellations and refunds

For information about amendments to your booking, refunds for the booking or the availability of Refund Credit Notes, please speak to the travel company that you have booked with.

We recognise the urgency of the situation and financial distress that customers may be experiencing.

Travel companies are doing all they can to ensure that holidays can go ahead where and when it is safe to do so and will be keen to offer you a range of options so that you can get the holiday you want.

Where no suitable alternative is possible, your travel company may offer you a refund of the money you paid depending on the terms and conditions of your booking and depending on whether or not you booked a package holiday. Alternatively, some companies might offer you a refund credit note, which is financially protected and entitles you to rebook a holiday or receive a cash refund at a later date, up until the expiry date of the note – please see ‘What is a Refund Credit Note? (RCN)’ below for more information.

You should check your travel insurance policy to see if you have cancellation cover in these circumstances. If you do, you will need to provide evidence of the booking and the reason that it has not gone ahead. Your travel company will be able to assist you with the paperwork for this.

If you booked a package holiday, you are entitled to a refund. We completely understand that for those customers that would prefer a refund to rebooking, you may be frustrated and concerned by the amount of time it is taking. In normal circumstances a refund should be paid within 14 days. But these circumstances are extraordinary, and it is simply impossible for many companies to pay monies back as quickly as they would like to as many have not yet received money back from hotels, airlines and other suppliers affected by the crisis.

If your travel provider has said they will offer a cash refund, they should let you know how long this will take.

If you have a package holiday booking through a travel agent

Many customers will have booked travel arrangements through a travel agent. Your travel agent will have made your booking with a company such as a tour operator or airline, and this is who you have a contract with and who any refund will be due back from.

Your travel agent will pass on any refund they receive from these companies as soon as they receive it.

As with other Members, travel agents are working very hard behind the scenes pursuing refunds on your behalf as well as taking calls from customers who may be finding it difficult to contact their travel supplier.

Why ABTA is supporting the use of Refund Credit Notes (RCNs)

Our priority is to ensure that you maintain your right to a refund and financial protection if your package holiday is cancelled, whilst also recognising the exceptional circumstances and huge financial strain on travel businesses.

Many tour operators and travel agents have not yet received money back from hotels, airlines and other suppliers. If travel companies were to fail on a significant scale, it would result in the loss of thousands of jobs and customers would experience many months of delays in receiving a refund from a financial scheme of protection (e.g ATOL).

ABTA’s guidance for its Members on Refund Credit Notes (RCNs) is to ensure that if they are unable to offer an immediate cash refund, they offer credit notes that protect your rights, rather than providing unprotected holiday vouchers. We expect that where customers have requested a refund, ABTA Members should provide this as soon as they are able to.

The guidance also ensures that Refund Credit Notes (RCNs) issued by ABTA Members are properly documented and relate to the amount paid for the cancelled booking; are of fixed duration, within which timeframe the customer must be offered a cash refund; and are protected by ABTA or ATOL in the event of the company failing before the Refund Credit Note (RCN) is converted.

We’re asking that as many customers as are able to work with us on this. We appreciate that for some it is a significant ask but it will help to ensure your money and your rights are protected, that healthy travel businesses aren’t forced into bankruptcy (leading to many months of delays in recovering refunds) and that when this crisis is over UK holidaymakers will be able to book and enjoy their holidays once more.

Travel businesses are operating in exceptionally difficult circumstances, with higher volumes of enquiries and often with fewer staff, and because of this it may be taking them longer to process refunds, which is understandably frustrating for customers.

In addition, many tour operators don’t have the cash to pay customers a cash refund for a package holiday in a 14-day period, as they have not yet received money back from hotels, airlines and other suppliers affected by the crisis. Forcing them to do so would put many of them out of business, which would mean customers would not get their money back for many more months, as the Government-backed ATOL scheme of financial protection could not cope with the sheer volume of refunds. It would also result in significant long-term damage to the UK travel industry.

If your package holiday has been affected and you do not wish to rebook, you are entitled to a refund. Your travel provider might also offer you a Refund Credit Note (RCN) (see FAQ on Refund Credit Notes), which can either be used to rebook at a future date or be redeemed for a cash refund. If neither of these options are offered we will be able to contact the Member for you.

If you would like a refund sooner than the expiry date of the RCN, or you do not want an RCN, you should let your travel provider know. You should ask the company for a timeframe for when you should expect to receive the refund. ABTA can contact the company if they do not respond to you or if they refuse a refund entirely.

Airlines are not Members of ABTA and not all travel agents and tour operators are either. Unfortunately, we are not able to help customers who have booked with a company that is not a Member of ABTA. You can find out if your tour operator or travel company is an ABTA Member using our search tool here.

If you have an enquiry about a company that is not a member of ABTA please contact Citizens Advice.

Many travel businesses are operating in exceptionally difficult circumstances, with higher volumes of enquiries and often with fewer staff so they may take longer than normal to respond to your query. Please check their website for their specific help and guidance and allow extra time for responding to queries.

If, after extra time you have made every effort to contact your travel company and still not heard back, and your query has become urgent, please contact ABTA and we will do what we can to assist.

You do not have to pay the remaining balance for your holiday if you do not want to take it due to the ongoing uncertainty. However, if the remaining balance has not been paid the company is able to cancel the holiday due to non-payment and retain the deposit or other cancellation charges.

Remember that, if the booking has not already been cancelled, and is for a package holiday, you will be due a refund for that holiday if you have paid in full and if it is cancelled by your travel company because the FCO is advising against travel at the time of departure or because the services cannot be provided.

Each company will have their own process for managing future departures and will be contacting customers due to travel imminently. Some travel companies are experiencing operational delays with collecting payments that are due, as a result of their staff working remotely or being furloughed or made redundant. If you’re unable to get through to pay your balance then please email the travel company and wait for their response – it is unlikely they will cancel the holiday if you have made attempts to pay.

Each company will have their own process for managing future departures and will be contacting customers due to travel imminently. There is no legal definition of ‘imminent travel’, however it is generally considered to be within the next few weeks or days.

Our advice to customers with future bookings is to be patient and wait to be contacted by your travel provider. Travel companies are extremely busy, given the pressures of the current crisis, and will be looking at imminent departures first and deciding how far in advance they will offer alternative arrangements or refunds.

Refund Credit Notes (RCNs)

What is a Refund Credit Note? (RCN)

A Refund Credit Note (RCN) entitles you to rebook a holiday or receive a cash refund at a later date, up until the expiry date of the note. It also retains any financial protection that you may have had with your original booking.

If your original booking, for example a package holiday with flights, came with ATOL financial protection, the RCN will still provide this protection. If your original booking came with ABTA financial protection, for example a cruise holiday or other package holiday including rail or coach travel, the RCN will still provide this protection.

A guide to Refund Credit Notes (RCNs):

A Refund Credit Note entitles customers to rebook a holiday at a future date or receive a cash refund up until the expiry date of the note.

The expiry date on an RCN lets you know when that company’s financial protection runs out. If you wish to receive a refund before the expiry date, you should make this clear to your travel provider.

An RCN retains the financial protection that came with the original booking – for a flight-package this is ATOL, for a non-flight package this is likely to be ABTA.

Holiday vouchers are NOT the same as Refund Credit Notes and do not come with financial protection of ATOL or ABTA.

RCNs only cover package holiday bookings. If an airline offers you a voucher for a cancelled flight, check the terms and conditions with the airline, it’s not the same as an RCN.

What should a Refund Credit Note (RCN) look like?

Refund Credit Notes (RCNs) may look different depending on your travel provider, but they should all comprise the following:

An expiry date, which is the date to which your money is protected, and is based on your travel company’s financial protection arrangements. You are entitled to re-book or have a cash refund by this date at the latest (if your original booking was for a package holiday).

The value of the RCN must be equal in value to the amount you paid for the original booking (or less any amount you have been given as a part refund).

The RCN must include the original booking details and reference.

Additional information

The RCN must not include any other amount offered as a rebooking incentive or other offer. Any such offers must be documented separately and are not covered by any scheme of financial protection.

You should retain all previous booking documentation including booking confirmations, ATOL Certificates where appropriate and proofs of payment.

Is a holiday voucher the same as a Refund Credit Note (RCN)?

No. A holiday voucher is different to an RCN. Holiday vouchers, gift vouchers and other discount vouchers are not protected by the schemes of financial protection.

No. A Refund Credit Note (RCN) preserves your right to a cash refund, which can be redeemed up until the expiry date of the note.

If your original holiday was covered by a financial protection scheme (e.g. ATOL or ABTA), your Refund Credit Note (RCN) is financially protected by ATOL or ABTA (whichever covered your original booking) in the event your travel business fails. It is important that your Refund Credit Note (RCN) includes certain things, please see more detail on this there (see ‘What is a Refund Credit Note?’ above).

The laws relating to package holidays have not been changed as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, and they provide a number of protections for travellers.

One of the protections is the right to a refund where a package holiday cannot continue as a result of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances at the holiday destination. The law requires that this refund is provided within 14 days. Unfortunately, many travel companies cannot meet this period due to difficulties in recovering monies from suppliers and operational difficulties in the UK due to current lockdown restrictions.

Our aim is to ensure that if travel companies ask their customers for more time to process a refund, they do this in a way that protects fundamental customer rights – in the case of a package holiday that means the right to a cash refund and financial protection. We also expect Members to refund customers as soon as they are able to. The details that we’ve set out for our Members on Refund Credit Notes (RCNs) are a way for us to guide our Members and hold them to account, through ABTA’s Code of Conduct.

The advice that we’ve developed for customers is to help you to understand what an RCN is, what detail you should look out for if you’re offered one and how it provides protection.

This guidance, and the RCNs, do not override or remove your statutory rights but are intended to give a practical solution to a very real problem.

If you do not wish to accept an RCN you are still entitled to a refund. The refund should be processed as soon as the company is able to. You should ask the company for a timeframe for when you should receive the refund.

We recognise the urgency of the situation and financial distress that customers may be experiencing. If you are experiencing particular hardship – for example, if you have been made redundant during the Covid-19 crisis and your travel insurance policy does not cover you for that risk, you can ask your travel company if they can prioritise your case.

A number of our Members have put in place special arrangements for such circumstances. If you find yourself in that situation, do ask your travel company how to apply for exceptional assistance and the evidence that would be required to help them to prioritise your case.

Your RCN should include an expiry date which is based on your travel company’s financial protection arrangements, or a date sooner than this.

Refunds can be requested at any time before the end date of the RCN. The refund should then be processed as soon as the company is able to do so. You should ask the company for a timeframe for when you should receive the refund.

The majority of package travel arrangements provided by ABTA Members are protected by either the CAA’s ATOL scheme or by a bond taken out by the Member company. These schemes protect a refund that was due for a holiday that has not taken place if a travel company fails.

ABTA is an independent organisation, recognised by the UK Department for Business (BEIS) as an Approved Body under the 2018 Package Travel Regulations. Some of our Members provide bonds through bonds held by one of the other two Approved Bodies – ABTOT or the CPT Bonded Coach Holidays schemes. Some Members also use financial failure insurance products rather than Bonds. These are also permitted under the 2018 Package Travel Regulations. Further information on the ATOL scheme can be found on the Civil Aviation Authority website.

If the RCN has already been issued then both parties – you and your travel company – would need to agree to the RCN being reissued with a new expiry date. You do not have to agree to this if you don’t want to.

Accommodation-only or flight-only bookings are not covered by the Package Travel Regulations. This may mean that you are not entitled to a refund, so you should read the terms and conditions to establish your rights.

Many companies that make accommodation-only or flight-only bookings are acting as an agent for the flight or accommodation provider. You might be able to contact the provider directly to obtain a refund, as this is ultimately who you have the contract with.

If you are not happy with the situation, you should contact your travel company to establish if and, if so, when they will pay a refund. If you feel that you are being treated unfairly in respect of cancellation terms in the wake of Covid-19, your legal and statutory rights remain and you can report the matter to the Competition & Markets Authority using this online form.

Many airlines are offering different options for cancelled flights such as amendments or future booking discounts which you might wish to accept. That will then form part of your refund for your package holiday.

If you do not wish to accept those options the airline must give you a cash refund.

If you encounter difficulties in getting the refund from the airline your travel company will be able to help you. If the booking is for a package holiday, you are entitled to a full refund for the monies you have paid for the package.

Each company will have their own process for managing future departures and will be contacting customers due to travel imminently. There is no legal definition of ‘imminent travel’, however it is generally considered to be within the next few weeks or days.

Our advice to customers with future bookings is to be patient and wait to be contacted by your travel provider. Travel companies are extremely busy, given the pressures of the current crisis, and will be looking at imminent departures first and deciding how far in advance they will offer alternative arrangements or refunds.

British people who decide that they need to travel abroad immediately should be fully aware of the increased risks of doing so. That includes the risk that they may not be able to get home, if travel restrictions are put in place.

The Government plans to introduce a 14-day mandatory quarantine period for travellers returning to the UK from 8 June, which will currently be reviewed every three weeks. Please see here for more information.

People will:

Need to provide journey and contact details when travelling to the UK.

Be required to self-isolate. They will not be allowed to leave the place they are staying for the first 14 days they are in the UK, except in very limited situations.

There are a limited number of exemptions to the 14-day quarantine requirements, including travel from Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The full list of exemptions can be accessed here.

As it stands today, the FCO advise against all but essential travel abroad, so any quarantine measures introduced while this advice remains will make little difference to the vast majority of holidaymakers whose holidays have been cancelled due to these restrictions.

British people who decide that they need to travel abroad immediately should be fully aware of the increased risks of doing so. That includes the risk that they may not be able to get home if travel restrictions are put in place. Anyone still considering travel needs to be realistic about the level of disruption they are willing and able to endure, and to make decisions in light of the unprecedented conditions we face.

Anyone planning to travel should check the validity of their travel insurance.

British nationals who need to travel are advised to read the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) travel advice for the country they are travelling to, which includes entry requirements and a link through to the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) TravelHealthPro website that provides specific travel health advice for countries.

As a precautionary measure enhanced health screening procedures have been put in place at arrival and departure areas in many countries.

Many countries have also introduced entry restrictions for people travelling from certain countries, travellers are advised to read the FCO travel advice and sign up to email alerts for the country they are travelling to, as these are subject to change at short notice.

As a result of the extraordinary situation and customer concerns over coronavirus, many travel companies and airlines are doing all they can to offer more flexible booking policies at this time, such as giving customers the option to change their travel date should they wish to postpone their holiday. In certain circumstances this may not be possible. Customers should please speak to their travel provider to discuss what their options may be.

This depends on how you booked your holiday and what the terms and conditions say. If the event has been postponed, you should please speak to your travel company about rearranging your trip once the new date has been confirmed.

No, as the reason for the holiday not continuing is outside the control of the tour operator.

3. Advice to customers currently abroad

Those currently in destination are advised by the Government to return to the UK now and should contact their travel company. They should also be aware that many destination authorities have introduced enhanced health measures including self-isolation procedures, and it is very important that travellers follow the public health advice relating to their local destination. Travellers should comply with these processes and take relevant preventative measures to reduce the risk of exposure. Travellers should also keep up to date on local advice.